TandemPlus Spring Kick-Off Event - Success!

On Friday, January 27, TandemPlus hosted its annual Spring kick-off event in 140 Nolte Hall. The event, attended by around 60 people speaking more than eight native languages, provided everyone with a chance to use their second-language skills in a fun, relaxing environment while enjoying refreshments.



After a short introduction by TandemPlus informing attendees how to sign up for the program, students broke into small groups of 6-8 participants, each led by a native English speaker. They engaged each other during an activity discussing a variety of topics provided on small "TableTopics" conversation cards.




After this activity, conversation group leader James Katsev and TandemPlus assistant Anna Kaminski led a game of "University of Minnesota Taboo" created specially for the event. Students were divided into two teams and had to describe different aspects of the University of Minnesota without saying words deemed "taboo". This was extremely difficult at times but overall the game got a good laugh out of all in attendance.



After this, a short and spirited round of karaoke was led by James Katsev, Anna Kaminski and French instructor Rick Treece.



TandemPlus currently has 344 people registered for exchanges. We hope to keep growing over the next couple of weeks and possibly beat last semester's record of nearly 700 registrants!